Junior Sanchez: “EDM is Music for Kids”

No sooner had he returned from Sweden than Junior Sanchez found himself packing up for a summer in Ibiza as one of the party island’s residents. Such is the life when you’re a traveling man slangin’ house music, but the veteran producer is no stranger to it. Since the mid ’90s, Junior has made a name for himself as a DJ’s favorite DJ, remixing for the likes of Madonna and consistently at the forefront of every trend. These days, Junior is as often on the business side of electronic music as he is out in front of packed dancefloors, considering his burgeoning Brobot imprint and partnership with Steve Angello on their popular Size label.

People get threatened by what they don’t understand. When you’re 40, you shouldn’t be mad at music 15-year-olds like.

We caught up with Junior mid-jaunt to find out how one of America’s most consistent DJs feels about the turning tides of electronic music and its evolving fanbase, social media’s influence, and the future of his labels.

There seems to be a clear-cut generational line drawn through house these days, and even SNL is now parodying Avicii. Any thoughts on this?
Anything that gets so big will get targeted. Music is way more disposable today. It’s easier to make music. Back in the day, you needed the passion, the love, the financing to buy gear and put it in your studio, or you had to hire an engineer to make it all happen. There used to be a lot more required, but the music grew. The genre grew. This whole EDM explosion was inevitable, obviously. It happened to hip-hop, too.

What concerns you about it?
What I’m concerned about is the art. The art is getting lost. Kids are self-discovering. When they’re young, they’re into crazier shows, the spectacle, the lights, the fire. As they get older, they discover things. They’ll hopefully eventually care or know about who Frankie Knuckles is. It’s a process, a cycle.

As a house veteran, what do you think of EDM?
I think EDM is music for kids. When they first get into it, they’re drawn to it because it’s young and crazy. But when they get older, they’ll want to rediscover it. All music can’t be cool—then what would be cool music? If you take that away, what’s going to replace it? Eventually, people get tired of all of this. They’ll get tired of Disclosure, of Jamie Jones. I just heard a new record by Chris Malinchak, and it’s totally different from the other stuff he’s put out. It was almost an ’80s funk Minneapolis type of sound, and it’s really cool. But automatically, people were saying he sold out. Why? Because it’s more uptempo? You can’t please everybody. With that said, though, there’s a lot of garbage coming out right now; it’s ridiculous.

Disco, as dope as it was, got so big that people wanted to destroy it. I’m scared it’s going to happen to our genre.

Do you think older fans get threatened by today’s newer sounds?
People get threatened by what they don’t understand. They want to destroy it. We’re not kids. When you’re 40, you shouldn’t be mad at music 15-year-olds like. What are you doing even getting pissed off about it? It really shouldn’t even be on your radar.

It happened to disco.
It did happen to disco! Look what happened in the Chicago stadium when some radio jock decided to say anyone who brings in their disco records to burn gets in free? That was because disco, as dope as it was, got so big that people wanted to destroy it. It was everywhere; even Mickey Mouse was doing disco. I’m scared it’s going to happen to our genre.

This whole smoke-and-mirrors social media stuff is going to implode.

John B. and I were talking the other day on Facebook about whether that would actually happen again. He said no, but I said yes.
I think it could. It totally could. There’s a rebellious spirit in us, so when people get fed up with something, they’ll try and send it away. I think it’s going to happen with buying on Beatport, the ranking of DJs, everything. This whole smoke-and-mirrors social media stuff is going to implode, too.

Wait, you think social media won’t evolve?
No, I think social media will evolve, but the whole persona of “I have a million people liking me”—we’re not going to buy it anymore. I’m waiting for the bubble to burst.

It’s totally happening.
The straw that breaks the camel’s back is going to be when corporate America doesn’t care about it anymore. The kids are going to come first—they’re going to say they don’t care how many people comment on your Instagram. And then when advertisers see that it’s not affecting them anymore, they’ll be out too. It’s the same thing that happened with Myspace and Friendster.

Switching topics to Size, how did your relationship with Steve Angello come to be?
I’ve known Laidback Luke since we were kids. I met him when we were like 19. I met Steve through Luke years ago, and we went out to eat and were cordial and cool and talked a lot about music. Back then, I was doing Bloc Party and Faint remixes before it was really known or cool in house clubs. So when I decided I wanted to make [up-front] house music again, I gave it to Size. The record was called “Where You Are” with Shawnee Taylor. So I gave it to Steve, and he was like, “Dude, I love this record.” And that’s where we realized we were like-minded. One day during Coachella a few years ago, he was like, “I don’t know if you know this, but I started Size because of Cube”—an old label I had back in the day. He said I inspired him to start the label, and I had no idea that was his whole thought process. So our collaboration was super organic, and we just kind of joined forces naturally.

How did your partnership with Size begin?
Around November of 2013, Steve was like, “Listen, I’m thinking about doing a Size session in L.A.; why don’t you come up, and we’ll all get into the studio for a month?”

So I went up there, and during that session, we all came to a realization that we really wanted to be involved in Size together more. To make a long story short, when I joined the team, it opened a lot of ideas in my mind to make Size grow internationally. My plan is to take Size to an XL level, to sign some more focused, full-album artists. Continue doing digital singles, continue doing electronic music, but growing as well.

So what’s going on with Brobot these days?
Brobot is like my pet project to release stuff I really love. What happened with Brobot is that at the start, we had a lot of people involved who shouldn’t have been, so I had to take it back to basics. Finally with Steve, we got proper participation and proper channeling, and now I’m just releasing really dope house records.

Just heard “So High” on Brobot by your artist Lupe Fuentes. Is it true she was once a porn star?
Yeah, she definitely has a colored past, but by now, who doesn’t? She’s probably the newest artist I’ve been working with. I’ve also signed Laidback Luke, Blackwell, Chocolate Puma. I’m just doing stuff I dig and letting it grow. I don’t really believe in genres, you know, I just want an outlet to release great music.

Always a pleasure, Junior. Where can we keep up with you this summer?
I’m going to go be in Ibiza all summer—I have a residency at Space on Mondays. I’m doing Pacha for Ibiza Rocks House, and that will be on Mondays as well. I’ll be on the island a lot! I’m still making records, producing and writing. I just had a record come out called “Underground Police,” and I’m working with a band, the Bad Suns. I just love partitioning my brain to create and grow this idea we have for Size. Watching it become the label we all want it to be is pretty cool. I find a lot of creativity from that as well. Big things coming.

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